johnson



(No Model.)

L. K. JOHNSON.

OOMPOSITORS TYPE CASE.

No. 336,646. Patented Feb. 23, 1886.

her Washi UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE,

LOUIS K. JOHNSON, OF BROOKLYN, ASSIGNOR TO THE ALDEX TYPE MACHINECOMPANY, OF NEWV YORK, X. Y.

COMPOSITORS TYPE-CASE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 336,646, dated February23, 1886.

Application filed July 2%, 1884. Serial No. $538,920. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Louis K. JOHNSON, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city of Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State ofNew York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements inCompositors Type-Cases, of which the following is a specification.

My present improvements relate to that class of oompositors type-caseswhich consist of a suitable number ofelongated type-holding compartmentsor reservoirs open at both extremities and inclined in such manner thattype distributed into their upper ends will descend through themautomatically to their other extremities, from which they may be removed during the operations of setting, the openings at either extremitybeing adapted to allow the insertion or removal of a type at any angle,as in the application (No. 101,851) for patent heretofore made by me,and I do not seek to cover such construction, broadly. I have found byexperience that there are serious objeotions to the use of suchcompartmentcases as heretofore made, and my present invention is theresult of experiments made to obviatethese difficulties. Forinstance,owing to the straight unobstructed channel formed by each compartment,and to the steepness of the angle at which it is necessary to arrangethem in order to insure the prompt automatic descent of the types,thereis danger of thelatter overflowing the supportingshoulders at theirlower extremities when the compart ments are heavily charged with type.Again,

, for a similar reason when the compartments are Wholly or partiallyempty, there is danger that the earlier types distrlbuted into theirupper ends will descend too rapidly, and,striking thesupporting-shoulder at the bottom,rebound therefrom out of the case.Whether this happens or not, the type is under such circumstances liableto be more or less battered and damaged by its too rapid descent.

Another objection is that in rapid and careless distribution the typesare apt to be thrown into a compartment at such an angle that they willdescend therein a considerable distance before encountering the floor,from which, under such circumstances, they are liable to rebound againstthe upper side of'the compartment, and so on continuously downward.

If the types are dropped gently through the openings at the upper endsof the compartments, so that they fall upon the floors imme diately,they descend upon the latter steadily and safely, and it is the objectof one portion of my invention to secure this result.

My invention consists in providing the compartments at their upper endswith receivingchannels or bottomless boxes which coincide with and formcontinuations of the type-channels, but which occupy with relationthereto an obtuse angle, being vertical, or nearlyso, in

position, so that types dropped therein must necessarily encounter thefloors of the compartments underneath at points near the upperextremities of the latter and within and corresponding to the area ofsuch receivers above.

Another feature of my invention consists in providing the lower frontextremities of the compartments above the type supporting shoulders witheither permanent or movable guards or gates,which enter into andcontract the type-channels at this point, so as to partially support andretard the type and regulate its descent to the typesupporting shoulders. By this construction I am enabled to successfully use compartmentsof comparatively larger area and capacity withoutdangeroloverfiowing,t-hesize oft-heaperturebeing ncccssaril y limited byand bearing certain definite proportions to the standard size of thetype. These guards also perform anotherimportant function, owing to thepartial support they afford the columns of type above, in that theyrelieve the forward or more exposed types on the supporting-shouldersentirely from, pressure, so that they maybemorc easily and quicklypicked up and removed in set ting.

1n the accompanying drawings, Figure lis a front elevation of aportionof acompositors typecase embodying my improved construction; andFig. 2, avertical section of the same upon plane of line a: 00, Fig. 1.Fig. 3 is atop view of the same.

Any suitable number of the compartments A A are combined together,according to the too number and denominations of the types to beaccommodated in a single case. They may be mounted adjustably upon astandard, so that their inclination may be varied in the same manner asmy improved type-cases heretofore patented; or, the appropriate anglehaving been ascertained, they may be supported upon a permanent frame orstandard,in the manner of the old form of compositors type-case. Thesecompartments A A are formed with the type-supporting shoulders a a attheir lower extremities. The shall ow cups or type-presenters a, thusformed by the supporting-shoulders a and the continuations a a of theside walls of the compartments,are designed to expose a sufficientquantity of type loosely before the compositor. For this reason thelowerends of the compartments may all end substantially in the same plane,which plane may be either vertical or inclined with relation to theposition of the compositor, as indicated in the drawings. hen thusinclined, each cup practically projects slightly in advance of andbeyond the extremity of the compartment next immediately above, bringingall within a uniform distance from the shoulder of the compositor. Inlike manner, for the purpose of rendering the upper end ofthe caseconvenient for distribution,the upper extremities of the compartmentsare all made to end upon a plane which is horizontal, or nearly so. Bythus cutting off the compartments at an angle to their length the areaof their openings is increased as compared with their area incross-section, thereby facilitating the operations of distribution. Bythis construction it will be observed that the lengths of thecompartments are gradually and uniformly increased from the top to thebottom of the case. This, far from being objectionable, is convenientand economical of space, since the higher compartments may be devoted tothe reception of the upper-case type and denominations that are leastfrequently required, while the lower compartments afford ample room forthe accommodation of the comparatively large quantities of lowercasetypes that are re; quired in ordinary composition.

The extreme upper ends of the compartments A A are formed at an obtuseangle to their lengths, the channels turning upward in a vertical ornearly vertical direction. Although this change in the direction of thechannels may be eti'ected by making offsets in the compartmentsthemselves, I prefer to accomplish it by the use of an independent topor receiver, B, formed with a series of openings, b b, which coincidewith and form the months or entrances to the inclined type-chair nelswhen placed in position upon the top of the compartments. Thisconstruction not only has the advantage of cheapness of construc tion,but it also provides a means of direct access to the inclined channelsfor the purpose or" cleaning, &c. The office of these verticalreceiving-channels, as before stated, is to insure the contact of thetypes dropped therein with the extreme upper portions of the tons of theinclined channels, and for this reason their height is preferably onlysufficient to prevent the introduction of a type through them upon aline parallel with the longitude of the inclined channels beneath.

The guards 0, attached to the lower front ends of the compartments, arepreferably made so that their lower edges may be adjusted to penetratemore or-less into the type channels; but this adjustment is notindispensable, since they may be permanently secured (as indicated uponthe upper tier of compartments in the drawings) in an ascertainedposition'as, for instance, in cases which are designed to be used onlyfor a certain size of type.

The adj ust-ment may be accomplished in a variety of ways, that shown inthe drawings consisting in hinging the upper edges of the guards orgates G to the front of the compartments and regulating the penetrationof their lower edges into the channels by means of setscrews 00, whichlimit the'outward movement of the guards, the latter being free to fallback toward the floors of the channels to the zeropoint or lowestposition when the latter are empty, or nearly so.

In the construction shown in the drawings the set-screws c 0 passthrough slots or recesses c 0 formed in the guard-plate O, and screwinto the division-pieces a a more or less, according to the limit to beset upon the forward position of the guards.

I am aware that elongated type-storing channels formed with parallelsides and of uniform area throughout have heretofore been described, asin the Patent No. 7,738, of October 29, 1850. I am also aware thattype-receptacles the upper front walls of which are inclined to formenlarged receiving-hoppers are old, as in the Patent No. 301,909, ofJuly 15, 1884. I do not claim either of these features, broadly; nor arethe inclined front walls of the hoppers referred to above the equivalentof my independently-inclined typeguards arranged at the lowerextremities of the elongated parallel-sided type storing channels hereindescribed, which channels are adapted to rest one upon another in aseries or case, as shown, without loss of space-an arrangement whichwould not be practicable in the construction shown in the last-namedpatent.

My independently-inclined guards are speciallyadapted to,and ofimportance when used in connection with,the comparativelylong parallelchannels with which they are herein con1- bined. \Vithout them thechannels would be practically useless, owing to the tendency of thetypes to overflow under the weight of the columns above, thetype-supporting shoulders being necessarily reduced to the smallestpossible size, in order to conform to and permit of the arrangement ofthe channels in a compact case or series one above the other.

That I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In combination with an elongated type storing channel formed withparallel walls and of uniform area in cross section throughout thegreater portion of its length,and provided with a type-supportingshoulder at its lower extremity, substantially in the manner and for thepurpose described, a type-guard situated at the lower termination of thefront wall of the channel and inclined inward at an obtuse angle theretoabove the said type-supporting shoulder, for the purpose andsubstantially in the manner described.

2. In combination with an elongated inclined type-storing channel formedwith a type-supporting shoulder at its lower extremity, substantially asdescribed, an adjustable guard, substantially such as set forth,arranged at the lower extremity of the channel for the purpose ofregulating the descent of the type to the said typesupporting shoulder,substantially 20 in the manner described.

3. An inclined type-containing compartment open at both extremities forthe purpose described, formed with a type-supporting shoulder at itslower extremity, and with its extreme upper portion formed at an obtuseangle with relation to the body of the compartment, for the purposedescribed.

4. The combination, with aseries of inclined type-containingcompartments combined to gether for the purpose and substantially in themanner designated, of a removable section containing a series ofvertical or nearly Vertical type-receiving channels arranged above andcoinciding with the upper entrances to the inclined type-channels in thecompartments below, substantially in the manner and for the purposedescribed.

LOUIS K, JOHNSON.

Witnesses:

PAUL H. BATE, GEO. W. MIATT.

